Wow, I'm kinda embarrassed to admit this, but I'm totally in the dog house here in the Travellious house. I just got my T-Mobile phone bill covering the few days that I was in Aruba last month and it was a jaw dropper. I'll admit that I didn't do my research before hand, nor study up on the costs associated with using my phone abroad. I knew it was expensive (been there, done that) and thought I kept it to a minimum.
I'm not naive. I was completely aware that every 2 minute phone call I made was going to cost me $10 and I kept my few phone calls short and sweet. Hi, "I'm here, I'm alive. Talk to you on the computer, later." But data, oh glorious data, is what killed me. I already knew that I had no concept of how many bytes, bits, or megs my phone goes through on a daily basis. I've also never travelled with a data heavy phone, until recently. Poor planning and not turning off all of my email, twitter and various other alerts ended up costing me something like $50 until I got that under control thirty minutes after I arrived. Not being able to not know something and googling the alternative name for the wahoo fish (which is ono, by the way) at dinner one night, probably ended up costing me a small fortune. I probably could have eaten my weight in wahoo for what I spent.
But, all-in-all, I did what any good traveling blogger would do, I turned off my alerts when I arrived, made a few minute-long phone calls, and I tried not to use my phone for anything. I wasn't terribly successful at that, it appears and somehow, I still spent over $100 on calls and data in four short days. What someone who wasn't thinking about it would have spent, is unfathomable. Don't be me, do your research before hand and be sure to turn off all those damn alerts! Better yet, if you can, don't even turn on your phone.
The problem is: data is ALWAYS streaming. So it's like you're constantly being charged abroad.
Even if you buy an international package, it still costs an arm and a leg.
The consumer just can't win.
Yeah, data is definitely something we take for granted at home. I'm appalled at how much they charge per MB. I've never traveled abroad with my phone without a local SIM card before. Expensive lesson learned.
I know your pain, just research alternatives (Skype, etc) for your normal services and you will find you can pretty much use your phone for all its normal uses without goiing through costly network data charges... just so long as you have access to Wi-Fi!
Great advice. I've learned the network and wifi settings on my phone very well now, won't make that mistake again!
I had a similar thing happen to me on board the NCL Epic inaugural cruise. I knew we weren't going far, but hadn't considered that we would be in international waters so the casino could operate. I had my phone turned on to use the alarm clock function. At some point that night, I saw that it was "roaming" and immediately turned it off. Luckily, it didn't cost me too much. About $30 extra. Could have been a lot worse.
Wow, yeah that was a close call. I had something similar happen to me while on a whale watching tour here and we went into Canadian waters. Luckily my phone was an ancient one and I only paid for one expensive text message.
This is great advice! I was flying to Spain in April and I ended up doing a little mini-lesson for the several people sitting around me on why they needed to turn off their data stream before we arrived in Madrid. Those charges are horrendous! Thanks for the great advice/post. :)
Happy travels!
I live in Nicaragua and I have a 'Magic Jack" which makes all calls to the US & Canada free (after you pay 19.99 for the first year..Pludgs right into the USB port.In hotels you can unplug the hotel phone and plug it into the ""phone jack " space on the "Magic Jack"..
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